Bug#484656: debian-policy: .desktop files have are a freedesktop.org standard but not debian policy

[Daniel Dickinson <cshore@fionavar.ca>]

Package: debian-policy
Severity: normal


For freedesktop.org compliant window managers .desktop files under /usr/share/applications are considered the preferred method of creating menu entries, and these entries are what are used for the main menu in these desktops.  The problem is that this is what the debian menu was supposed to be, but because of this development the debian menu is rarely used and not very helpful in window managers like gnome, to the extent that downstream ubuntu doesn't even have the debian menu unless you work at it.

Also, for gnome users, the debian menu is not HIG-compliant AIUI.

I use XFCE, but the main menu is based on the .desktop files, and I only use the Debian menu for packages that haven't gotten around to shipping a .desktop file.

.desktop files should probably be Debian policy because they are what the window managers expect and it is a cross-distro standard.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental'), (1, 'unstable'), (1, 'testing'), (1, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.24-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_CA.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_CA.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash